•Explaining•

3RD POV

When Elijah heard movement in his mates room he knew he had to take a break to talk to her. It's not like he could avoid her forever.

He walked in to see her looking down at her enlarged stomach. "Hello." She looked up at him with tears in her eyes and she got out of bed and ran into his arms.

Wasn't exactly how she planned it to go when she first saw him but she couldn't help it. Everything she remembers she couldn't stay mad at him. "Hello, Eli." She breathed in his scent and put her forehead on his chest as he rubbed her back.

"We have some talking to do, Rena." She nodded and pulled away to lay down again and pat the spot next to her for him to sit. She wiped the tears away and looked at him thinking of what she could possibly say to him. When she went to say something he did first. "Why? Why didn't you tell me before?" He asked gesturing towards her stomach.

"I-i was going to but you were busy with family and I didn't want to tell you until it was right. I certainly wasn't expecting to die." She snifled a little and looked him in the eyes. "I'm sobsorry Eli." He smiled at his little mate and wiped the tears away.

"Hey, we have her back and your both safe now. That's all that matters to me."

"My turn. Why-why did you make me leave?"

"It wasn't safe for you. I didn't want you anywhere near the danger Niklaus was causing and i'm glad I did because when you left it was bad." He told her softly.

"But I still would have been with you." She said looking down at her hands.

"That doesn't matter." He said lifting up her chin. "What matters is if your safe. And if that means away from me then so be it. You and your saftey are more important to me then how I feel."

"You are wrong. Your feelings are important too. But thank you for trying to protect me." She smiled at him and before he could talk more their baby kicked. "Woah." She said with a bigger smile as she moved her hand to her stomach to feel the kick.

"May I?" Elijah asks gesturing to her stomach. She nods and places his hand over the light kicks.

The familiar spark hits her stomach and the baby feels her father and moves her baby hand to her fathers hand. Elijah listened to the heart beat and smiled at Aphrena who looked up to him surprised by the baby's actions.

"That's our little girl Elijah." She says with a soft smile.

"Yeah. Ours." He breathes out with a warm smile. He has the woman he loves and a child on the way. He couldn't have asked for more.

•••

Aphrena borrowed a shirt and leggings from Hayley seeing as none of her clothes fit now. She heard Elijah call her name and she followed his scent to the room he was in.

"Elijah. Your back, did you find any--thing?" She first sees his shirt off and then the names written across his body. "What is happening?"

"I need you to make a list of these names." She walked closer not taking her eyes off his body. "Please."

"Ok." She breathes out as she examines his stomach, his arms and his back. "Sabine..? Elijah, what is this?"

"I believe they represent the names of the women that Celeste inhabited the past two centuries."

Elijah told Marcel about Aphrena before he left this morning so when he walked in to see the dopplegangers bloated stomach he wasn't all that surprised though he was slightly shocked out how she looked pregnant. "It's called a devinette. It's old school. Kind of a riddle." Marcel hands her a note pad and pencil. "Witches use them to teach their kids. Solve it and it disappears."

"Why? What's the point?" She asked looking between the two men.

"Celeste forced me to make a choice you, your sister and my siblings and now she means to mock that choice, taunting me with a childish game. The longer the game, the more they suffer. To find Niklaus and Rebekah, we need to solve this riddle. The solution lies somewhere in these names."

Elijah moves his arm and Marcel notices a particular name, "The name next to Sabine... Annie La Fleur, she's the witch that was shunned from her coven just over a year ago. Never knew why, but I can find out." Marcel said before leaving.

•••

Aphrena's POV

While on the phone Elijah was explaining what happened to Annie La Fleur.

"She killed herself?" I asked shocked.

"Yes, drowned herself in the Mississippi, to be precise. Celeste was clearly tired of the body and ready to take Sabine's."

"And how in the world would you know that?" I asked.

"Because she leapt to her death from the very location Celeste and I had our first kiss."

"Sorry Elijah but your ex-witch is a little obsessed and creepy. I mean it's poetic... but only in a creepy vendetta sort of way."

"All these names, these lives, stolen that Celeste might take her revenge. I suppose we have no choice but to see where they take us. Aphrena, I have to go. I'll call you back."

"Elijah, wait."

"What is it?"

"Ask Marcel if he knows anything about a name on that list-- Brynne Deveraux. Sophie said that it was her family's bloodline that put the curse on the crescent wolves, but Celeste said that she was the only one that could break it. If Brynne Deveraux was actually Celeste when she cast the spell, then maybe Celeste can still break it."

"I'll see what he knows."

"Elijah, I'm really sorry that you're going through this. If I had known that Celeste made you choose who to help-"

"You were going to die in that fire Aphrena along with my child and Niklaus' there was no choice. Love you."

He hung up and I looked at my phone screen and sighed, "Yeah. Love you too."

•••

I'm typing on the laptop in the study when Elijah enters.

"Hey, look, I found-"

Elijah stops me with a gesture to indicate he has news. "You were right about the Deveraux witch."

Before we can say anything more, Marcel joins us.

"Find anything about Clara, the mystery witch?"

"Not much. She was a nurse at the Fleur-de-Lis Sanitarium." I replied looking over the photo I found.

Marcel freezes and visibly begins to panic. "Recognize her?" I asking clicking on the picture to zoom in a bit more and point to her so Marcel and Elijah can see what she looked like. "Top row, second from the right."

"No, I don't. Marcel?" Elijah asks, he turns to look at Marcel to hear what he has to say, and I notice how alarmed he looks. "Marcel? Do I need to remind you that Niklaus and Rebekah are somewhere suffering horribly? If you know something, talk."

"The Sanitarium. That's where you'll find them." He answers.

"Are you sure? How do you know?"

"I just know." He says clearly not wanting to reveal the whole answer.

"How do you know?"

"If I'm right, you need to know exactly what we're walking into. We did something, Rebekah and I... I think the witches are trying to use it against her. It was, uh... something that you're not gonna like."

Marcel has just informed me and Elijah that he and Rebekah had summoned Mikael to New Orleans in 1919 and I was actually shocked Rebekah would do that. Ok, maybe not completely, but slighty.

"For the better part of a century, I have wondered how Father found us, what foolish mistake that we had made to destroy our time in the one place that we could finally call home. Did you know, I even blamed myself for a time, Marcellus?" Elijah asks visibly angered. My stomach turned a little and I felt my little girl kick. I reached down and rubbed the area trying not ot puke.

Elijah vamp speeds to Marcel and slams him into the wall holding by the throatr. "Elijah." I saying running over to them. As much as I hate Marcel, I don't want to see this.

Elijah ignores me and continues to speak to Marcel, "Niklaus treated you like a son. Rebekah--"

"I loved her. I still love her. All we ever wanted was to be together, but as long as Klaus was around, that was never gonna happen. But hey, I guess you wouldn't know anything about that, huh?" He says looking at me and I just scoff while Elijah releases him.

"When Klaus learns the truth, there will be no end to his rage. I will not let my sister suffer that wrath."

Marcel pushes past him then looks back at him. "Then we need to get to them before he learns the truth."

•••

I told Hayley about all I found and we decided to get to Celeste so we can save our people. But before we could Hayley started mumbling something about Nik and went to go help leaving me to get the nasty little witch.

Once Celeste leaves the sanitarium and starts walking down the street toward the French Quarter. However, I sneak up behind her and hit her hard over the head with a shovel, "Uhh!" She is knocked out and falls to the ground.

"Hey, there, little witch bitch. You and I are gonna have a little chat." I said through gritted teeth.

Hope you enjoyed even if its short.❤